Mended Wings
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: kenichi was happy living an ordinary and somewhat uneventful life with his family, friends and masters at ryozanpaku until a familiar face from his childhood appears.reminding him of his promises and the frailty of human life. Rated M for implied torture
1. Chapter 1

Kenichi Shirahara was nine years old when he met an angel.

He had decided to go the long way after school and was passing through the park, enjoying the sights and sounds of the fall scenery. Taking in everything from the crunching of the red, yellow and orange leaves under his sneakered feet.

He stopped under a large tree and tipped his head back and watched the sway of the branches as the wind blew. He could see faint traces of the sky's pale blue between the swaying branches. Could see the sun shining in the partially cloudy sky.

The air was just a little bit cold, for such a clear and sunny day. But that didn't bother the boy much. He had his pocket warmer and his light red and black jacket with the hood. And the scarf that his insane father had tied around his neck this morning and nearly strangled him with before he had managed to escape.

He breathed deep. Ignoring the sting of the wind as he inhaled the scent of leaves and grass. The dirt of the ground and the water of the lake some ways off to his left. He exhaled and started walking again knowing that he needed to go home before it got dark.

Because his father always told him that terrible things happened to children in the dark and he was paranoid that he would be caught by some unknown monster and dragged off to some scary place where the sun never reaches it's dark depths.

To him such a place could only be described as hell. And he didn't want to end up in such a place no matter what.

He was walking by a bench when he noticed a little white shaped bunny back pack with a teal and lavender colored scrunchy around both of it's little ears and paused for a moment and looked around for it's owner.

It looked like something that a little girl would carry, yet there weren't any kids in the area aside from him.

At least none that he could see anyways. He picked up the bunny and studied it for a second before turning it over and finding a name written sewn onto it's bottom. Right under it's realistic looking little fluffy tail. _Hn. Interesting_. Kenichi thought before turning it right side up again and frowning then put the bag back down on the bench.

He turned and started walking again and stopped when he heard the bushes behind the bench stir. He turned a little bit and caught a small glimpse of something scarlet disappearing through the branches and blinked when he noticed that the bunny was gone.

Curious to know _who_ was hiding in the bushes, he slipped his back pack from his slender shoulders and jumped the bench and ran after the scarlet thingy.

It was fast. Whatever it was. It was also small and more able to maneuver through smaller areas without getting snagged on the branches and brambles that it zipped through. But Kenichi was determined and closed in on the thingy.

He could see it a little more clearly now and was a little surprised to know that the thingy was a person. A little girl if the mid back length curly silvery blond hair was any indication at all. Though he could also tell that he was running after a girl by the scarlet sweater, the overall pants and little black boots with small heels.

"Hey! Slow down!" Kenichi called out as they ran through a familiar area that he recognized as a dangerous place due to the uneven ground that sloped down into steep hills with large jagged rocks sticking up out of the ground and little creeks that ran into ditches that fed the lake in the middle of the park.

The girl didn't listen and before Kenichi realized what he was doing he saw her slip and start to disappear through some bushes and dove into the thicket after her.


	2. Chapter 2

Seven years later-

The alarm blaring next to his ear woke Kenichi from a sound sleep where he recalled his childhood friend and first crush. Winter Delilah Sara Alice Morgan. She had been a half american half japanese girl with pale, _pale_ silvery blond hair and wide beautiful turquoise eyes.

The scarlet thingy that he had chased through the park and fallen down a steep hill with his arms wrapped around her, protecting her from the large jagged rocks.

The two of them had been partially knocked unconscious by their fall and had lain there on the ground at the bottom of the steep hill calling each other names like 'idiot' and 'jerk'. Kenichi could recall it all so _clearly_ even after all this time. Everything. Every little detail.

Every argument, every laugh, every time she had shown up in the park crying her heart out, every time she had shown up bleeding.

His eyes fluttered open and he stared up at the ceiling of his room for several minutes trying to calculate how long it had been since he had last visited the place where Winter had 'died'. The anniversary of her demise was coming up in the next week or so. And it had been a while.

Maybe this year he'd buy a six pack of beer and disappear for a little bit so that he could mourn her again.

After all it wasn't every day that the first love of your life picked up a gun and put it against her head and pulled the trigger. Not that he could blame her any for doing so. Her family had been fucked up in a way that made him sick just being in the same room with one of them.

He still couldn't wrap his mind around what would drive a father and two brothers to lock a young girl in a basement and strip her of everything that made her human. Her dignity, her pride, her _identity_ as a person.

They'd treated her little better than an animal.

They'd burned her, cut her, drugged and let their friends rape-

His stomach lurched and he quickly sat up in his bed and put a hand over his mouth. He needed to stop thinking about it. If he didn't he'd spend the next hour in the bathroom dry heaving. And wouldn't that be a fun conversation piece to discuss with his masters over breakfast in a little while?

He pushed the covers back and swung his legs over the side of the bed and put his feet on the floor, jumping slightly at the cold feeling of the wood under his feet as one of the boards outside of his bedroom creaked.

He turned his head and waited as the door opened and Sakaki came walking in ready to shatter his ear drums to get him out of bed and stopped cold when he saw Kenichi sitting up on the bed and snapped, "Killjoy." Before he turned and stomped out of the teen's room grumbling because he hadn't been able to scare Kenichi awake like he liked too.

Kenichi chuckled at his master's antics, noting that the karate master acted more like a kid than he did, and got up off fo the bed to go use the bathroom and then do a light stretch before his masters started his before school training.

(****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Winter lay face down on her bed with her attendant leaning over her. His hands working on cleaning the bloody jagged wounds that criss crossed her naked back and shoulders. "You've really done it now. These marks are actually going to scar." Her attendant chidded her as he cleaned one particularly bad wound were the skin had been ripped open by a dull metal hook.

"It couldn't be helped Taki. The higher ups wanted me to murder a couple of children. I couldn't do it."

"That's not true. You could have killed them easily. You merely chose not too because children are something sacred to you."

"_Life_ is sacred." Winter said tiredly.

"If that's really the way you feel then you aren't going to last long before the higher ups decide to have you removed. They have a issues about showing any sort of weakness."

"Then they should go ahead and kill me because _all_ life is sacred." _Except my own._ Winter thought sadly as unwanted memories rose to the surface of her mind. She ruthlessly pushed them aside, refusing to let them gain any more ground today and waited for Taki to finish up so that she could get some rest.

Taki finished cleaning the wounds then sealed them closed with a salve that would speed up the healing process then left the room after telling her to refrain from anything that could rip open the wounds on her back again.


	3. Chapter 3

Winter was put on bed rest for three days to allow her some time to heal and regain her strength before she was given new orders. The higher ups wanted her to make an example of someone called Takeda Ikki, a boxer with skills enough to get on the higher ups nerves and take out a number of their subordinates.

She was given his picture, his school schedual, his home address, and a list of times she could catch him alone while training.

She left the meeting with a feeling of dread and walked down the long tile hallway to her room and slipped inside of it. "Well, what is the job this time?" Taki asked anxiously from across the room where he was sitting on her bed. She gave him an annoyed look as she walked over to her closet and pulled out her combat clothes.

They were nothing special like many of the other fighters preferred.

She was a simple girl despite her title and her paycheck, and liked to keep things that way. She pulled out her black leather lace up ankle boots with the thick wide three inch heels and a pair of faded, torn jeans, a simple black shirt and a pair of velvety soft kid skin leather gloves.

"They want me to make an example of some kid." She finally said as she stripped off her shirt and dropped it to the floor, not caring that she was in the room with a man, or that as a woman she should feel embarrassed about being semi naked.

She'd lost all traces of 'maidenly' modesty long ago. It came with the territory of being someone's bitch for too long.

"Do they want you to kill him?" Taki asked as she tossed her pants, boots and gloves onto the bed then pulled on her shirt. Wincing a little bit when her back started to throb and ache where she had been wounded.

"They didn't say to kill him. So you shouldn't worry. Besides, there are ways to destroy a person without killing them." She said as she unfastened the shorts that she had been lounging around in before being summoned and let them slip down her long slender legs.

Taki blinked at her and turned his head as a flush worked it's way across his face. He'd been working as the Demon Fist, or Snow Emperess as many called her due to her beauty and aloof personality, attendant for several years now and _still_ wasn't used to her stripping in front of him.

"I'm aware of such things-" Taki said after a moment or so of hesitation as he tracked her movements as she pulled on her pants then sat down on the edge of the bed and started to pull on her boots before he looked at her again. "But you dislike such methods."

She snorted. "So natrually your worried that you'll soon be out of a job."

"No. I don't care about the job, I'm worried about _you_, my lady."

"Don't be. I can take care of myself." Winter said as she finished lacing up and tying her boots then grabbed her gloves and stood up and walked towards the door without a second glance.

(*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Today had proven to be a rare treat for Kenichi and Takeda since their masters had gotten together and decided that the two teens would be training with each other to sharpen their skills a little more. Which wasn't a problem for the two since they were such good friends. Yet at the same time it was a little bit of a problem because once they started sparring a while ago, they had sort of fallen into the habit of apologizing to each other every time they managed to land a hit.

It was sort of cute and amusing to their two masters at first, but after a while it slowly started to grate on their nerves and before the two teens knew it their masters were shouting at them to knock each other's teeth out.

_Just stop acting like pansey's._ Was what Takeda's master yelled at one point earning a dark look from both of the boys before they turned their attention back to each other.

"Those two won't be happy with us unless we pummel each other into the ground." Takeda said between pants. His long dyed blue hair hanging in his face, damp with sweat and there was blood running down his chin from the hit Kenichi had landed a littlw while ago.

Kenichi was just as bad off, Takeda supposed as the brunntte spat out some blood and looked at him as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

His normally amused golden brown eyes were looking a mite smoldering to the boxer and Takeda wasn't sure, but he'd almost swear that he could see Kenichi's tightly leashed temper slipping a little bit when he met his unblinking stare.

"I'd like to pummel those two into the ground." Kenichi finally growled as he straightened his spine and used one hand to push his long dark sweat dampened bangs out of his face so that he could see better. Takeda snickered at the comment and had to bite back the words, _It'll never happen_. But knew better than to voice his thoughts.

Kenichi was likely to punch him in the nuts and knock him on his ass if he did. And how embarrassing would that be.

(*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Winter stood outside the run down house that was listed as one of Takeda Ikki's reular hang outs and frowned at the massive gate. She dug the piece of paper with the addresses on it and double checked the list to make sure that she was at the right place and frowned at the name sprawled across the paper in blood red ink. _Ryozanpaku_.

Why did that name sound so familiar? She wondered as she sighed and stuffed the papaer back into her pants pocket and stepped up to the gate and put one of her delicate gloved hands flat against the surface and pushed it open and slipped inside.

Automatically two things happened. One- A nearly seven foot tall man with semi long dark brown hair and a scar across the bridge of his nose appeared out of nowhere.

And two- A woman wearing a kimono style short purple dress jumped down from the gate behind her and placed a katana blade against the back of Winter's neck and demanded, "Who are you?"

"My name is _Snow_ and I'm looking for Ikki Takeda." Winter said, her tone brooking no arguments. The man gave her a once over and grinned. His grin showning straight white teeth that made him look like a shark baring it's teeth just before it took a bite. That grin would have sent a lesser more meek person running for cover. But not her. Winter was made of sterner stuff than that.

"Takeda, huh. What do you want with that guy?"

Winter shrugged her slender shoulders, unsure of what to say to the man aside from; "I want to fight him."

"Is that so? Well your in luck..._Snow_. He's around back sparring with one of his friends. Want me to show you the way?"

Winter considered his question for a second and chewed her bottom lip nervously before nodding. The woman behind her removed the sword from her neck and the man turned and started walking obviously intending for her to follow at his heels like a dog.

She wasn't sure what pissed her off more. His arrogance or the fact that she was being led around like an animal. She made a mental note to herself to knock the bastard on his ass before she left figuring that that would make her feel better.


	4. Chapter 4

Winter followed the man across the yard to the back of the old fashioned japanese style home complete with screen doors and was stopped when the guy put one of his arms out in front of her as something that looked suspiciously like a person came flying through the air about a foot or so from them.

Winter blinked and turned her head to look at the person that had just hit the ground and took note of the wild dark hair, tan skin, and white fighting gi over mesh armor as the teen groaned and pushed himself upright and shook his head before climbing to his feet and yelling. "That was a low blow Takeda! Now your going to suffer for it!"

Then charged the taller teen with the light blue hair and grey eyes that she recognized as Ikki Takeda.

He got half way across the yard when the giant standing next to her called out, "Oi! Boxer boy, you have a challenger!" The dark haired teen tripped over his own feet and slid the rest of the way across the yard, stopping at the other teen's feet as he looked up and over at them with a startled expression on his face.

"A challenger?"

The man next to her grinned that freaky shark like grin again and stepped aside and put one hand on her back and gently pushed her forward. Winter looked back at him with a slightly pained/alarmed look on her face then turned and smacked his hand away from her and tried to ignore the burning sensation left where he had touched her, right over one of her more serious wounds.

_Ow_. She'd have to be careful during the fight of her back would hinder her movements enough to cost her dearly. The two teens and the men sitting on the houses wrap around porch all looked at her in interest. It wasn't often that a woman decided to take on someone learning boxing. Just like it wasn't often that they saw a woman challange someone who knew karate.

Women today were more vain than they should be. Always so concerned with their looks. It was shocking to the teens and their masters that a woman would think to challenge someone when she could end up with her face crushed in from the force of the blows.

But that was only one issue of many. The others were a part of a long, long list that was simply too long to go into them all.

Still this was interesting. Takeda stepped forward and politely offered one of his bruised hands to her. Winter took his hand automatically and shook it as he introduced himself to her and asked her her name. Winter gave him a sad smile. "My name is Snow. I'm one of the nine fists-" Takeda stiffened, his polite manner faltering a little bit. "Yomi sent me to make an example out of you for causing them humiliation with the continuous defeats of their subordinates."

Takeda pulled his hand from her grip and gave her a strange look then he blanked his expression.

He had a wonderful poker face in Winter's opinion. "Is that so?"

"Yes..." Winter said as she put on an apathetic look, trying hard not to let this get to her. If she did, she'd throw the fight and Yomi would kill her. It didn't stop her from thinking about how badly she felt for doing this to the young man. He seemed to be the decent sort.

A true sports man. The type of person incapable of fighting dirty.

"Will we be fighting to the death?" The teen asked her, his question jolting her from her thoughts. She looked up at him through her wide turqouise eyes.

"Wha-" She said unintelligably. What was it with people left and right asking her questions about killing? She didn't kill people. No matter what the circumstances. It went against her code of honor to kill anyone no matter what their sins were. "No. No, no, no, _no_. I don't kill. Yomi can go fuck themselves if they think I'm going to do such a thing." She said darkly.

This was apparently all Takeda needed to hear. His grin reappeared and he happily smacked her on her back, right in between her shoulders earning a pained yelp from her as he hurried away from her and took up a defensive stance.

Winter rolled her shoulders, trying to shrug off the painful jolt running along her spine and took up her own stance. A second later the fight began.

(*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Kenichi had moved off to the side out of Takeda's way and sat down as the fight started. He watched his friend try to take the girl out with one punch only to miss. Soon one punch became two, then three, then a few dozen.

He couldn't believe that Takeda kept missing her. But then he wasn't the one fighting her so maybe he was missing something. Although he could plainly see that she was fast. Really, really fast.

She was tearing up the yard with her frenzied motions despite the fact that she was perfectly calm and in control. She ducked another blow and wound up being nailed by one of Takeda's feet when he kicked out.

His foot connecting with her arms as she crossed them in front of her face at the last second to protect her head. She hit the ground, bounced twice and rolled almost all the way over to the porch and lay on the ground for a second with a look of agony on her face before realizing that he and several others were watching her and then blanked her expression and got to her feet.

Kenichi cocked his head as she charged back into the fight and he was struck by the oddest sense that he knew her. This sense only seemed to grow stronger as the fight dragged on.

Ten minutes turned to twenty, and twenty turned into an hour. It wasn't until she decided to change tactics and changed out her fighting stance that Kenichi finally recognized her. There was only one person in all the world that had ever taken that stance and he hadn't seen her since they were kids.

Takeda moved in close, finding an opening in her guard and reared back his fist to strike her at the same exact moment she did the same. Kenichi wasn't sure what possessed him to jump to his feet and bellow at the top of his lungs. All he could honestly say was that he had just wanted to confirm his thoughts on who the girl was. So he bellowed her name in the hopes that she might respond in some way.

"**Winter!**" She froze in mid swing. Takeda though, unfortunately, hadn't been able to do the same. His fist connected with her face, forcing her head back on her spine _violently_. Kenichi cringed a little bit as she crumbled to the ground with her hands over her face and let out a string of oaths that made Kenichi blush with shame and smile at the same time.

Yup. She was his Winter alright.


	5. Chapter 5

Winter lay on the ground blinking back tears as Takeda loomed over her with a slightly alarmed look on his face. "Shit- Uh, Snow? Girly are you okay?" Thanks to Kenichi's distraction Takeda had been able to avoid being hit by a particularly nasty hit, but the girl however had suffered an even worse hit.

He had stopped holding back and had punched her as hard as he could.

She blinked her eyes and looked up at him then slowly dropped her hands away from her face and slowly pushed herself up as Takeda held a hand out to her. She took it and let him pull her to her feet then turned and looked at the kid that had yelled out her name.

She got the oddest feeling of deja'vu as he ran up to her and without warning wrapped his arms around her and kissed her on the lips.

Her eyes widened in shock as she put her hands against his shoulders and tried to push him away as she caught sight of the boxer's jaw dropping open as he stared at them in comical disbelief. Winter pushed against the teen's shoulders, trying again to push him away as he tightened his grip on her to the point of pain. The wounds on her back were tearing open, blood was starting to seep from the torn flesh, forcing the air from her lungs.

She opened her mouth to cry out but the sound was muffled by the boy's mouth.

Her heart slammed against her ribs in distress and she flailed around for a minute, tears slipping down her face from the buring in her back and lungs. She lifted one of her feet and brought it down on the guy's foot earning a pained yelp from him as he jumped back a little bit and loosened his grip on her before she reared her hand back and slammed it into his face as hard as she could and yelled.

"Idiot! That hurts!"

The guy went down and looked up at her through wide golden brown eyes and her temper instantly cooled as it hit her that she knew this person. Her eyes widened slightly in alarm as she took in the thick wild looking dark hair, the eyes- The teen's lips quirked up in a smile and her heart stuttered in her chest and nearly stopped.

_Dear god-_ "Kenichi?"

He gave her a happy, goofy grin. "Hey, it's been a while hasn't it?" She blinked and just stared at him as he got back to his feet and reached for her. Her reaction this time was a knee jerk reaction that she wasn't able to supress.

She punched him again, then planted her foot against his chest and shoved him away from her as hard as she could. Sending him skidding back twenty or so feet before she ever realized what she was doing.

Kenichi rubbed the bridge of his nose, checking to see if it was broken as she started crying then randomly shouted, "I'm sorry!" And took off running as fast as she could away from everyone before Kenichi could even react.


	6. Chapter 6

Kenichi wished that he could say that he had been surprised by the fact that Winter had punched him hard enough to knock a few teeth loose, but well, he wasn't that surprised. After all Winter had never been a terribly touchy feely person. Not after the shit that her family had done to her, still he wondered what exactly had set her off.

It couldn't have been the kiss itself, she rarely reacted to such things when he had kissed her before. But then they'd been children and she had craved real, true, non aggressive or harmful affection.

"Kenichi- What the hell was that?" Takeda demanded, his voice cutting into Kenichi's thoughts. Pulling him back to the present. He looked at his friend and gave him the most innocent look he could muster.

He didn't mind sharing some aspects of his life with others, but he kept Winter and any information about her off limits in a _big_ way.

For example, he'd used to keep diary's as a child. Documenting Winter's suffering and their bond and everything between. And to date there had only been one person who had dared to pick up his old diary's so that they could get information- his father.

And Kenichi had dealt with him the same way any small child would treat an enemy.

He'd lashed out, _attacked_ and even done bodily harm until his father had stopped trying to read his diary's. His father had finally learned his lesson when Kenichi had almost broken one of his legs in three places.

Looking back on the incident it wasn't something that Kenichi was proud of. But he had been thoroughly convinced that if anyone read his diary and found out about Winter, then something even more horrible would happen to her.

He hadn't known that by with holding the information, he was aiding her family in slowly killing her and by the time he'd figured that out and had been ready to come forward, Winter had disappeared without a trace.

"What was what?" Kenichi asked in a mock innocent tone, knowing damn well that he could get away with with holding information from Takeda, but he wouldn't get away with it with his masters.

Whom had all gathered outside to watch the fight and were even now listening intently to learn why he had done what he had done. Later on they'd take turns grilling him about Winter.

But all they were getting from him was his name, rank, and parents phone number. As mentioned before- Winter was _off limits_ to anyone but him. "What the hell was-" Takeda did this weird little hand motion then to demonstrate pretended for a second to kiss his hand then looked pointedly at Kenichi whom was trying his damndest not to laugh. He couldn't believe how much Takeda suched at sign language. "_That!"_

Kenichi's lips twitched a little bit. "A new way to tell someone to go jump off of a bridge." Kenichi said carelessly before laughing. Takeda looked at him like he was a lunitic for a second then bared his teeth and growled at him then punched him hard in the kidney.

(**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Winter slipped into her bedroom through the mansion window attached to her terrace and staggered a little bit. Her back felt like it was on fire, the pain shooting down her spine was so great that she had almost had to crawl back home on her stomach. Everything _hurt_. And to make things worse, she'd run into her childhood crush Kenichi.

God she couldn't believe how big he'd gotten!

Kenichi Shirahara was a far cry from the little boy she recalled as a child. He'd once upon a time been shorter than her, now he topped her at almost six feet two inches. His once lankey body had filled out nicely. Gaining more girth and substance to it.

But it was his eyes that had changed the most. His once laughing eyes had been replaced by eyes that knew sorrow and pain. _Why?_ What had happened to her Kenichi that had given him those eyes? She wondered before her legs buckled and she fell to the floor and knew no more.

(**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Takeda left with his master about an hour after the fight with Winter which was when Kenichi decided to retreat to his room where he fouund all of his masters waiting for him in various spots around the room.

"_Dammit_ guys! Do you all have to come tearing into my room every time you have a frigging question?" Kenichi growled as he slammed the door to his bedroom closed behind him and glared at the lot of them as they all grinned at him.

"Of course we do dear boy, what fun would it be if we let you get in here ahead of us and pile your furniture in front of the door then sneak out the window."

"It would be 'fun' because all of you would have the distinct pleasure of chasing me down and dragging me back here kicking and screaming." Kenichi snapped in an irritable tone as he stomped over to his bed and sat down on it so that he was facing them and braced himself for what he knew would be a totally invasive and possibly demeaning grill session.


	7. Chapter 7

"So Kenichi... is there something that you want to tell your masters?" Sakaki asked in his usual semi blunt tactless manner.

Kenichi ran his fingers through his hair and looked from one face to another and made a humming sound before cheerfully saying, "Nope."

"So if we ask you something like... Are you fratrinizing with the enemy? What would you say?" Kensei asked curiously. Kenichi gave him a blank look. Fraterinizing with the enemy? Really? That's what they called his greeting to Winter. _God their thick in the head. _Kenichi thought in bemusement.

"I hardly call a simple kiss-"

"_Ravishment_-" Akisame supplied, obviously not caring that he had just interrupted Kenichi. "That kiss wasn't a simple 'hi, how are you' sort of kiss Kenichi. That was a _claiming_." Kenichi made a scoffing sound.

The kiss he'd given to Winter paled in comparison to what he planned to do with her now that he knew she was in town somewhere. No, no. That hadn't been a ravishment. That really had been a greeting. The ravishment- It would come later once he had her cornered with no hope of escape.

"No it wasn't." Kenichi denied, unaware that his face was a vivid red. His masters noticed though. They were standing just a few feet away from him, so of course they would notice. But that didn't mean that Kenichi didn't wish that they _wouldn't_ notice though.

"Oh Kenichi..." One of his masters said in a very low, soft tone that held a sad note to it drawing the teen's gaze to them. What the hell was that _'oh'_ for? He wondered darkly as Kensei asked.

"Don't you have a crush on Miu?"

"Yeah Kenichi, you've had the hots for her ever since the day you met now suddenly some tart-" Kenichi reacted so quickly that Shigure had to use her katana to block the shiriken that the teen had thrown at them before snarling.

"Who the hell do you think you are to talk about _my_ Angel? You have no idea who she is, what she's done- You certainly never helped her when she was in trouble so don't any of you stand there and call her names in front of me and _feel_ that you have the fucking right to lecture me. _Get out_."

The masters all stood there in stunned silence, staring at their desciple in disbelief. Kenichi was practically vibrating with rage.

The masters exchanged looks then very quietly started for the door and filed out one by one until only Shigure and Apachai were left. The two paused at the door as Kenichi took a shuttering breath and sat back down on his bed and buried his face in his hands when he heard Shigure clear her throat. He peeked out from between his fingers at them and gritted out a slightly less angry sounding, "What?" Before Apachai said in a hesitant tone.

"If the girl means so much to you; then you should invite her over to visit or eat dinner with us so that we can meet her properly."

Kenichi dropped his hands away from his face and gave Apachai and Shigure a wry smile. "That wouldn't be such a bad idea if I knew everyone would play nice." _And if I could_ _corner her long enough to persuade her. _Kenichi added mentally.

"If you invite her over... Shigure and I will make sure that everyone plays nice." Apachai said soberly as Shigure nodded her head in agreement. Kenichi gave them a grateful look as they both slipped out of his room and quietly slid the door closed behind them.


	8. Chapter 8

Kenichi didn't see Winter again for almost two weeks. Two horrible, agonizingly slow weeks of wondering if she was alright. If she was training. If she was bedridden because she was hurt. Kenichi often skipped part of his training to go looking for her.

Something that his masters didn't exactly like, but didn't discourage him from doing what he felt he had to do. After all if they did he might tear Ryozanpaku down around their heads with his nervous energy. So after training each day they let Kenichi go clean himself up, tend his wounds then slip on some normal clothes. Jeans, a long sleeved shirt, some shoes and he would walk out the gate after telling them not to wait for him, just in case.

As if that would stop them from waiting a few hours before going to look for their desciple themselves.

Kenichi didn't seem to realize the potential of his current situation to be used against him by Yami. The girl was the enemy, a direct member of the group after his life. They worried about what would happen if the girl was given orders to _kill_ Kenichi.

And they worried about what Kenichi seemed to be hiding from them about the girl as well. They had gleaned enough from their conversation with their desciple before he had thrown them all out of his room to know that Kenichi had known the girl when he was younger. And they had gleaned enough of the conversation to know that the girl had been hurt.

Which meant that Kenichi had been trying as a kid to protect her. But because they didn't anyhting beyond that they tended to think that the girl must be waiting to use their previous childhood bonds against him.

Still they let him go, then they would pace back and forth and wait for the previously agreed upon time, then they would spread out and search for Kenichi so that they could make sure that he came home safely.

Today was no different from any other day from the past two weeks. They woke Kenichi for his before school training at four in the morning, then ran him ragged then they all sat down with him and Miu to eat their breakfast just like they did every morning.

However today was a little different though.

Because Apachai had accidentally let it slip over breakfast that Kenichi was probably going to go look for the 'snow girl' again and upon realizing his mistake promptly slapped his hands over his mouth and gave Miu a terrified look, while Akisame and the others all scooted away from him as Miu gave the thai master her undivided attention.

"Snow girl? What snow girl?" She asked curiously as Kenichi ignored everything in an effort to finish his food quickly so that he could escape. All the while praying that noone else would say anything since the masters had decided to keep Winter's visit to their home a secret from the girl.

Apachai feigned ignorance and quickly stuffed his face at super human speeds then ran off before Miu could question him more thoroughly. Leaving the rest of them to suffer through the blond girl's interrogation.

Miu first looked to Shigure- But found a straw dummy in the woman's place. She made a frustrated sound and then turned to Kensei who was trying to crawl across the floor towards the door on his stomach.

Miu picked up a spoon and chucked it at the man's head with leathal accuracy. Hitting him hard enough to stun him then got up from her seat and stomped across the room and grabbed him while Sakaki, Akisame, and Kenichi slipped out of the room through one of the windows and ran like hell in different directions, each one hoping that the girl wouldn't come after them.

Their tactics didn't work though. Much to their horror and disbelief.

Ten minutes after their escape Miu had not only captured them, but had hog tied the lot of them and dragged them all (minus Apachai and Shigure) back to the house kicking and screaming where they all sat for the better part of an hour as Miu drilled them for answers.

Kenichi surprised Sakaki, Akisame and Kensei by not saying a word. Just like Sakaki had shocked everyone when he had cracked like an egg and spilled everything when Miu had threatened to pour out all of his beer and swore that she would see to it that he never had the money or opputunity to touch alcohol again if she wasn't told _something_.

Once Miu was done questioning them she then gave them a sickly sweet smile and walked out of the room leaving them all sitting there bound, with a sinking feeling that terrible things were going to happen to them for the next month or so.


	9. Chapter 9

Winter had woken up at five this morning when one of the higher ups had her summoned so that he could give her her new orders. Apparently her masters felt that she was spending too much time in isolation and had decided to enroll her in the local high school.

She'd been given her new uniform, her school scheduel, and had been told to be ready to go at seven thirty. After that she had returned to her room, flopped down on her bed and waited for her alarm clock to go off.

Once it did she went through her morning routines, throwing the clock across the room, rolling out of bed to do some of her morning 'pacing' because she had far too much restless energy. Then she got dressed in her new uniform.

A simple long sleeved white shirt with a navy blue jacket a red ribbon, and a red pleated skirt, and white silk thigh high stockings.

After dressing she pulled her pale hair back into matching pony tails at the nape of her neck then slipped on her shoes and headed for the door after pausing long enough to grab the book bag that Taki was holding when he stepped through the door.

"The car is waiting for you." He said gently as she took the bag from his hand. She nodded her head and brushed on by him and walked out to the front of the mansion and climbed into the waiting limo and folded her hands in her lap as the door was shut an the driver started the car.

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Kenichi was a little jumpy now that Miu was pissed at him.

He'd been sitting down in their homeroom class, minding his own business when the girl walked in and sat down right behind him. Causing a chill to go down his spine.

Then the tapping started. That low, soft yet angry tapping of her fingernails on the desk she was sitting at. Every time Kenichi heard the tapping, he started to twitch like mad.

By the time she started to shift around in the seat Kenichi was so paranoid that he finally snapped and jumped out of his chair, turned to face her and screamed, "I have nothing to feel guilty for! We aren't dating! You haven't even given me the time of day! So I'm sort of in _love_ with another girl- so what? Who are you to judge me and act all pissed like I'm your property!"

Miu blinked at him and then stood up and gave him a sickly sweet smile and then grabbed him while kicking his feet out from under him and then threw him all the way across the room where he landed on a couple of desks before she stepped out of the room, ignoring the looks of _shock_ and _horror_ she got from her fellow classmates.

_That jerk!_ Miu mentally snarled as she walked down the hall. KI radiating from her body, warning others to stay the hell away from her. She wasn't in a good mood and wouldn't put up with idiots. _How dare he scream at me after not_ _telling me that he liked someone else_.

And an enemy to boot! _Ohhhhh_- Miu could cheerfully kill the twerp for this crap. Really she could. She'd stood by him in the past year that he had come to Ryozanpaku to train. She'd watched him fight, watched him grow as a person and how did he repay her?

By falling in love with someone else. "Idiot!" Miu yelled a she blinked back tears and punched a locker, startling the kids standing just next to it.

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Winter walked the down the hall way of her new school sizing up the people around her as if she'd like to put them in their coffins. She didn't know what her masters were thinking, but she hated it here already.

It was crowded, and loud and the constant buzzing of voices was starting to give her a headache. She dug her scheduel out of her jacket pocket and looked at it to see where her homeroom was. "Room 2-A." She muttered as she stopped walking and looked around, ignoring the looks that she was getting from the other kids as she wondered where room 2-A was.


	10. Chapter 10

It took her ten minutes longer than she would have liked, but Winter finally found her class just as the bell rang and everyone was sitting down. Leaving her the odd man out. Which wouldn't have been so bad if not for the fact that 1) She was new here. And 2) She stood out far too much with her pale hair, and vivid eyes.

Everyone in the class, male and female alike were all _staring_ at her. Making her uncomfortable in a big, _big_ way.

She fidgeted with her skirt as the teacher walked in, looked at her with a peculiar expression then sighed and looked around the room and asked in a loud voice so that everyone could hear her. "Are there any free desks?"

Winter looked at the man and was about to say, _You have eyes, don't you? Do you see any seats? _When someone raised their hand and said, "Is Kenichi's seat okay to use? He ran off after Miu a few minutes ago."

Winter visibly stiffened and looked over at the desk hidden from view behind a few kids over in the corner and frowned as she mentally asked herself. _Why am I at a_ _school that Kenichi is present at?_ It was a stupid question to ask herself of course. She knew why she was at the same school as Kenichi. And knowing why the higher ups had sent her here infuriated her on so many levels that she would have to do something to express her displeasure.

Maybe she could kill someone among the nine fists?

It would do nothing to take the target off of her back but dammit, she wanted blood for this. To hell with everything else. The teacher came up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder, and it took every ounce of self control she possessed _not_ to throw the woman through the door a few feet behind her as she said, "Go ahead and take Kenichi's desk since he'll be standing in the hall for being late once he comes back anyways."

Winter turned her head slightly and looked at the woman over her shoulder, a peculiar expression on her face a second before she blanked it and forced a smile. "Sure." She'd plot her retaliation on the nine fists while trying to think of a way to keep coming to school here without running into Kenichi.

(***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Kenichi grumbled as he stomped down the hall towards his homeroom class as the bell rang for school to start. He paused just a few steps away from the class room door and let out a loud angry growl before he kicked the wall, then yelped and started jumping around when he stubbed his toe.

He recovered quickly though since the wall kick was merely a way for him to partially vent the frustration he was feeling because of Miu and Winter. On one hand, he had the girl he recalled as his first crush. The one that he'd never really forgotten and still loved with all his heart. And then there was Miu who represented his moving on.

Or what should have been his moving on. However never having her show any interest in him had caused him to cling too tightly to his former feelings for Winter, which upon finally seeing her again, had shocked him by sparking back to life.

The problem he had now was choosing between a past that he'd agonized over for years. And a future with someone who didn't even seem to need, want, _or_ notice him. The choice was fairly simple once he really thought about it.

Winter made it easy for him by coming back and being in trouble. Since he had been incapable of abandoning her before, he seriously doubted that he'd be able to do so now. Even if it upset Miu and put a strain on his relationship between himself and his masters and friends.

He sighed, feeling a little bit bummed about how things were going for him so far and opened his class door and paused in the door way when his teacher stepped in front of him with a rolled up paper book in one hand and a sinister look on her face. "Ah, Kenichi. So good of you to join us. But your late-"

Kenichi looked at the clock on the wall above the chalk board and cringed a little bit as his teacher cheerfully informed him that he'd be standing out in the hall until further notice then slammed the door in his face.

Kenichi made a low sound of irritation in the back of his thoat and moved to stand in his usual spot out of the way of the door and leaned his back against the wall and crossed his arms and tried hard to keep from storming into the room when he heard the teacher say in a loud tone, "Now everyone we have a new student. Please welcome Winter Morgan."


	11. Chapter 11

Sorry that I haven't updated this in such a long while. I've been sitting with my grandmother now that she's dying and spend most of my days trying to make sure that she eats, takes her pain meds and so on.

There's other things going on aside from that but nothng that I'd care to go into.

I just want my readers to know that I'll update again as soon as possible I just hope that this chapter made some sense considering that I'm working with only three hours of sleep.

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Kenichi went eerily still the moment Winter's name left the teachers mouth. His heart studdered in his chest and he stopped breathing for a moment as he found himself moving towards the door. Intending to open the door and look and see if his Winter was in the class room but stopped himself just shy of touching the door and pulled back.

This felt too surreal to be more than just a dream.

Yes that must be it. He'd lost consciousness during morning training or when Miu had thrown him across the room in her earlier fit of temper and he was just dreaming about Winter and how much he'd like to see her again.

He sighed and went back to standing with his back against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest and waited for the dream to get interesting. It took about forty five minutes, and every now and then he'd pinch himself in an effort to wake up. He was getting bored with his own dream. How pathetic was that?

The bell rang and Kenichi instantly perked up as the class room door opened and the students started pouring out into the hall, and he held his breath and waited for his Winter to step through the door so that he could see her.

His dark eyes scanned the faces, not really registering anyone familiar despite the fact that he had friends in the class and still he waited. Then finally she stepped out of the room and he felt as if he'd just been punched.

She just looked so-so _beautiful_.

"Winter."

She turned her head and looked at him, her eyes wide, her expression surprised as he pushed away from the wall and grabbed her hand in a firm grip and started to drag her down the hall towards the door when she finally spoke up. "K-Kenichi! Wait! Where are we going?"

"Away from here."

"W-What?" She squeaked as he deftly maneuvered them through the crowd of students.

Kenichi suddenly stopped. Almost causing her to run into him as he turned around and let go of her hand just long enough to frame her face in his hands and tip her head back and kiss her on the mouth.

Winter jerked a little bit in his grasp and brought her hands up to push him away when he abruptly lifted his mouth from hers with a groan and licked his lips. God she even tasted the same in his dream as she did the last time he'd kissed her. Which made him think that he wasn't unconscious or dreaming after all. He was just an idiot.

"I'm taking you away from here so we can sit down and talk." He said in a husky tone as he grabbed her hand again and proceeded to drag her out the door and into the open.

He'd take her to the storage shed or maybe even the park that they first met in to talk to her since he didn't want anyone around to over hear some of the things they would talk about. He didn't know what she had been up too or why she was a member of Yomi but he was betting that he was going to strongly dislike her answers if she chose to give them to him.

A few minutes later they were safely off of school grounds and in the park where they'd met as kids. He let go of her hand and let her look around at their familiar childhood stomping ground, noting the changes that the passage of time had wrought.

Some of the trees were gone, either rotted away by desease or had been cut down by the owner of the park because they had been old and in danger of falling on the people passing under them. And in their places some smaller, healthier trees.

There had also been flowers planted that ranged from tulips, to roses, to lilies. "Is this-" She started to ask when he smiled at her and nodded.

"Yeah. This is our park."

"It's been forever since I last saw this place." Winter said as she moved to look at the flowers a little more closely. Kenichi studied her profile as she leaned down a little bit to check a bud on one of the rose bushes and stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her middle.

She jumped a little bit at the feel of his arms around her but seemed to settle easily enough as she straightened her spine and wound up leaning against his front a little bit. "Kenichi?"

"I'm sorry. I know that you don't like all this touchy feely shit. But I've missed you so much my angel." He said softly as he nuzzled the side of her neck. Winter lifted her hands and placed them over his and blinked back tears.

She couldn't believe that he'd still call her his angel after all this time. And after everything she'd done- it was just so _painful_ to hear him call her by the old nickname he'd given her when she had been a little girl.

"Please don't call me that."

Kenichi rested his chin on her shoulder. "Call you what?"

"Your angel. I'm not that person anymore." Kenichi hummed and kissed her cheek and frowned when she tried to jerk her head away from the slight contact.

He sighed again and reluctantly let his arms drop to his sides and moved away from her and said seriously. "Talk to me Winter. Tell me what you've been up too to make you think that you can never be my angel again."


	12. Chapter 12

_Once Winter stopped speaking and glanced over at Kenichi, she caught the look of utter devastation on his face as he hesitantly reached out and took one of her hands in his and squeezed her hand. "They made you do all of those things?" He asked in a small, shakey tone as he turned his head to look at her. His dark eyes piercing as if he were trying to look into her soul. _

_Winter gave him a pained look and lowered her head. Suddenly afraid of what he might see if she let him see her eyes. Kenichi took several suddering breaths before saying in an angry tone as he suddenly got up and started pacing around in front of her. Staying well within reach due to the fact that their hands were still linked. "I need to get you away from there." _

_I need to get you away from those monsters, was left hanging unsaid in the air between them. And Winter got a sinking feeling in her stomach when Kenichi stopped pacing and said, "Come and stay with me. At the dojo with the other masters. We'll protect you!" _

_It was sweet of him to offer her a place to stay with him. But she seriously doubted that the other masters would allow her to stay in the same location. So his offer was moot. Besides, it didn't look like he'd thought this part of his plan out very well. Staying with him would only put his and his friends lives at risk. _

_"I can't stay with you Kenichi." She said gently but firmly. __And her childhood frined got a look on his face like he was about to cry. _

_"But Winter- You can't stay with Yomi! They'll kill you!" _

_"I imagine that they will...when I stop being useful to them. Until then at least I'm safe." She said with a shrug of her shoulders as she got up and carefully pulled her hand from his grasp. She'd wasted hours just sitting with him, talking. And now it was time to go. _

_She worried that someone may see them together and try to hurt him. "I have to go now Kenichi." _

_"What? No!" He shouted in alarm as he reached out and tried to grab her. She dodged his hands and took several steps back._

_"I have too." She said softly, trying to hide how much it hurt her to leave him again. He surged forward and tried to grab her again and she sighed as his hands gripped her shoulders and then reared back and punched him as hard as she could in the stomach knowing that this was the only way he'd let her go. _

_Kenichi doubled over as her fist connected, his breath leaving his lungs in a whoosh as his grip loosened a little bit and he slowly sank down to his knees on the ground in front of her as she framed his face with her hands and gave him a chaste kiss on the cheek and whispered an apology for hitting him so hard. Then dropped her hands and turned and ran away as fast as she could. _

_Running past one particular area with dense under brush where two guys had been watching her and her friend the whole time. _


	13. Chapter 13

Takeda and Ukita didn't know what was going on with Kenichi, but they were for the most part happy that they had decided to skip classes today. They had been pretty worried that his protective instincts were about to get him into trouble again when they had run into an angry Miu earlier, whom had told them about Kenichi getting into a fight with her over an unknown person.

Why else would they have come to the park and seen him hanging out with the same girl that had attacked Takeda the other day? The two stood off to the side of some trees watching Kenichi as he hugged the girl. She looked like she was crying.

Takeda's fist connected with the trunk of the tree as fury rose up in his chest. The bitch was toying with his best friend! She just had to be. And Kenichi, being the honest, unsuspecting, and nice guy that he was- he was buying into her act without question.

It was _infuriating_ to watch. Even more so to bear.

_Just you wait honey, if anything happens to Kenichi- I'll kill you._ He thought darkly as Kenichi kissed the girl on the forehead as she pulled back away from him and wiped at her eyes and started to speak again. This time he managed to make out what she was saying.

"I have to go now Kenichi."

"No!" Kenichi almost shouted as he grabbed her wrists and held her in place on the park bench next to him. "Please don't go. Not yet. Not until I can think of a way to help-"

"Enough, please. I have to go before someone comes looking for either of us. I don't want to get into another fight with any of your friends. And I certainly don't want you anywhere near any of Yomi's people."

Takeda frowned and peeked around the tree as the girl forced Kenichi to release her and stood up. She gave him a sad look and forced herself to smile and Kenichi got a strange look on his face a second before he hung his head and let her walk away. Takeda and Ukita stood silently bearing witness to Kenichi's inevitable breakdown as the girl disappeared from sight.

Kenichi sat on the bench with his head bowed, a look of pain on his face as tears slipped down his cheeks looking like a broken man. "What do you think she said to him?" Ukita finally asked in a whispered tone. Takeda shrugged his shoulders. He didn't know and to be honest he didn't care.

All he knew was that that girl was _his_ enemy. She was_ Kenichi's_ enemy.

And though she hadn't done anything yet to physically hurt him, Takeda could feel that she would..._eventually_. And he planned to be right there to fuck her up.

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Kenichi's mind was still reeling hours after leaving the park to return to the dojo. He couldn't seem to wrap his mind around all the horrible things that Winter had been blackmailed into doing. _It has to stop-_ His mind hissed as he went through his daily training regimen. The violence, the threats, the fear, the whole _damned_ cycle. It all had to stop.

But how? How could he stop the cycle and save Winter? He wasn't strong enough to take Yomi on. Hell, he was barely strong enough to protect his friends and himself. What good would he be to Winter? _Maybe I can convince her to leave Yomi and come here. She would certainly be safe. My masters wouldn't let anything happen to her... Would they? _

To be honest he wasn't sure that bringing her to the dojo would even do anything aside from get them all killed. But then again, could he even ask his masters to take in and protect her when she was considered their enemy?

He supposed that he could explain the circumstances that had made her a part of Yomi and hope that they would understand. But as martial artist he doubted that they would understand. Sure that would feel pity towards her, but that wasn't the same as understanding. And talking to Miu about this and seeing what she thought was simply out of the question since she had decided to ignore him after their fight earlier in the day.

He couldn't talk to Niijima, or Takeda, or any of the rest of the Shimpaku Alliance.

_Jesus_, he had no support what so ever here did he? The realization that he was just as alone in things as Winter was, shook him to his core. If he had no support, no one to talk too or ask about what he could do for her then how could he save her?

The answer would come to him the next day at school when he met her on the rooftop of the school building and noticed the bandages around her neck and wrists. He would simply have to become her shield and protect her that way. And that meant leaving Ryozanpaku.


End file.
